User tracking based on client-side browse history

ABSTRACT

Techniques for associating a user with a user characteristic may be described. In particular, a network-based document may be provided to a computing system of the user. The network-based document may include least an identifier of another network-based document and code. The code may be configured to, upon execution, determine whether the other network-based document was accessed prior to providing the network-based document. An indication of whether the other network-based document was accessed may be determined. For example, the indication may be received from the computing system based on an execution of the code at the computing system. The user may be associated with the user characteristic based on the indication.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and incorporates by reference for allpurposes the full disclosure of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 14/747,901, filed Jun. 23, 2014, entitled “TARGETING CONTENT BASEDON USER CHARACTERISTICS”, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/747,919, filed Jun. 23, 2015, entitled “USER AUTHENTICATION USINGCLIENT-SIDE BROWSE HISTORY”, and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 14/747,939, filed Jun. 23, 2015, entitled “DETECTING A NETWORKCRAWLER”.

BACKGROUND

Users may operate computing devices to access various resources andservices provided over a network. For example, a user may access a website and browse various pages of a service provider.

The service provider may provide additional services to improve theuser's experience. For example, the browsed web pages may be customized.In another example, a login web page may be set up to authenticate theuser and allow user access to specific functions. In a further example,a web crawler may crawl the web site and access information. The serviceprovider may limit the crawling to certain portions of the web site byusing, for instance, a robots exclusion protocol. As such, differentservices may be configured and provided based on the user. However, ifthe user may not have been properly identified, some of the services maybe inaccessible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment for providing a network-basedservice, according to embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example classifier usable as a part of providing anetwork-based service, according to embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of data collection usable as a part ofproviding a network-based service, according to embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of data collection usable as a partof providing a network-based service, according to embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example flow for providing a network-basedservice, according to embodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flow for maintaining a classifier,according to embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates another example flow for providing a network-basedservice based on a user characteristic, according to embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates another example flow for providing targeted contentas a network-based service, according to embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates another example flow for authenticating a user as anetwork-based service, according to embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow for detecting a network crawler as anetwork-based service, according to embodiments;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example network environment for offering items,according to embodiments;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example architecture for providing anetwork-based service, including at least one user device and/or one ormore service provider devices connected via one or more networks,according to embodiments; and

FIG. 13 illustrates an environment in which various embodiments may beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, various embodiments will be described. Forpurposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments.However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that theembodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore,well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscurethe embodiment being described.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to, among otherthings, providing a network-based service. In particular, a serviceprovider may maintain a network-based resource (e.g., a web site) thatmay include a plurality of network-based documents (e.g., web pages).The service provider may also implement a tracking service associatedwith the network-based resource. The tracking service may be configuredto de-anonymize a user of a computing device (e.g., a client device)accessing the network-based resource and, accordingly, provide anetwork-based service. For example, the tracking service may beconfigured to analyze user actions, identify a user characteristic, andprovide one or more network-based services based on the usercharacteristic. In turn, the user may operate an application on thecomputing device to request a network-based document over a network.Network-based documents previously accessed by the user (e.g., by thecomputing device) may be determined from storage associated with theapplication. This determination may involve, for example, the trackingservice inserting identifiers of the network-based documents and code inthe requested network-based document. The code may be configured to,upon execution at the computing device (e.g., by the application),access the storage and determine whether the network-based documents mayhave already been visited based on the identifiers. As such, uponproviding the network-based document to the computing device and upon anaccess thereto by the application, the code may be executed. In turn,the tracking service may receive an indication about the previousaccesses. Based on the indication, the tracking service may associatethe user with a user characteristic. The user characteristic mayrepresent a potential characteristic of the user based on the previousaccesses. Further, the tracking service may provide a network-basedservice to the computing device based on the user characteristic. Forexample, targeted content may be provided. In another example, the usermay be authenticated. In yet another example, the application may bedetected as being a network crawler.

To illustrate, consider an example of a web site associated with anelectronic marketplace. The electronic marketplace may be configured tooffer different items. Upon a request from a computing device of a userfor information about an item, a tracking service of the electronicmarketplace may insert, in a web page describing the item, a universalresource locator (URL) of another web page and a particular JavaScript.The other web page may be associated with metadata describing apotential user characteristic. A browser of the computing device mayrender the web page. When the web page is rendered, the URL may not bevisible to the user. Further, the rendering may cause the JavaScript toexecute. The executed JavaScript may access the browser's history anddetermine whether the URL may be in the history, a state of the URL(e.g., a visited state), or a style attribute of the URL (e.g.,underlined and purple). Accordingly, the JavaScript may generate anindication of whether the other web page may have been accessed prior toreceiving the web page describing the item. The tracking service mayreceive the indication. Based on this indication and the metadata, thetracking service may associate the user with the user characteristic.Further, the tracking service may cause a particular action to beinitiated based on the associated user characteristic. For example, ifthe user characteristic indicates that the user may be a shopper havinga particular behavior, an advertisement affined to that behavior may beinserted in a widget of the web page. In another example, if the usercharacteristic indicates an authenticated user identifier, the user maybe authenticated. In yet another example, if the user characteristicindicates a characteristic of a web crawler, the user may be detected asbeing the web crawler.

The various embodiments may be described in association with providingcomputing services to a user, such as associating the user with a usercharacteristic, classifying the user, providing targeted content to theuser, authenticating the user, determining whether the user isassociated with a web crawler, and other computing services. Providingsuch computing services may include providing the computing services toa computing device of the user, a user account of the user, or otherhardware, software, and/or electronic entities associated with the user.

In the interest of the clarity of explanation, the various embodimentsmay be described using example web sites, web pages, universal resourcelocators, JavaScript, and browsers. However, the embodiments are notlimited as such. Instead, the embodiments may similarly apply to anynetwork-based resource, network-based document, identifiers, codes, andapplications. In particular, a network-based resource may represent aresource hosted on one or more computing nodes and available for accessover a network. Generally, a network-based resource may be configured toprovide a service over the network. For example, the network-basedresource may include a collection of network-based documents. Anetwork-based document may represent an electronic document that may beavailable for access over a network. Generally, the electronic documentmay include information. The electronic document may or may not be astructured document. An identifier may facilitate identifying one ormore network-based documents. For example, the identifier may include anetwork address of the network-based document(s) or a link to thenetwork-based document(s) over a network. When an identifier is insertedin a structured document to identify an address of another network-baseddocument, the identifier may be added to the electronic document as anobject, or some other element, of the structure of the document.Generally, the identifier may have various states (e.g., visited,activated, hovered over) and various attributes (e.g., a style attributedefining a color). An attribute value (e.g., a specific color) maydepend on a state (e.g., a visited state). A code may represent code,such as a script, configured to perform certain actions. The script mayinclude statements of a programmatic scripting language in accordancewith an ECMAScript standard, such as a JavaScript, JScript, andActionScript. For example, the code may be configured to track useractions, to analyze tracked actions, to access storage associated withan application, or any other programmable actions. An application mayrepresent a program that may be hosted and executed on a computingdevice to perform certain functions. An example function may includeaccessing or rendering network-based documents. Storage associated withthe application, or more generally with the computing device, may storeinformation about the performed functions, such as information aboutidentifiers of the accessed and/or rendered network-based documents.

Further, a user may represent a human being or may represent a machineor a process. For example, a user may include a shopper operating acomputing device to surf and purchase items from a web site. In anotherexample, the user may include a computing device accessing the web site,or a web crawler hosted on the computing device and accessing the website.

A web page (or more generally a network-based document) may includeinformation. That information on its own may represent an item.Additionally or alternatively, the information may be about an item.This item may be tangible (e.g., a physical product or a digital productoffered from an electronic marketplace) or intangible (e.g., a service).

Turning to FIG. 1, an example environment for providing a network-basedservice is illustrated. The network-based service may include providingany or a combination of targeted content, user authentication, or webcrawler detection.

In particular, a user may operate a computing device 110 (e.g., a clientdevice or a computing system of a client) to access one or more servers120 (or other types of computing resources) over a network. The servers120 may host one or more web sites of one or more service providers.Each web site may include a collection of web pages. A web page mayprovide information or describe an item.

The computing device 110 may host a browser (or another application)that may access one or more web pages 122 provided from the servers 120.In an example, the browser may, but need not, render an accessed webpage. Each of the web pages 122 may be associated with a URL. A historyof the browser may store URLs of accessed web pages. For example, thehistory may store the URLs of the web pages 122 with state and/orattribute information. State information may describe a state associatedwith a URL, such as whether the URL was accessed, visited, or otherstates. Attribute information may describe an attribute associated witha URL. An attribute may include a style attribute. For example, theattribute may include a purple color (or any other color) and anunderline style (or any other style effect) to indicate a visited URL.The history may be stored at local storage of the computing device 110.

At some point after accessing the web pages 122, the computing device110 may connect to the server 130 (or another type of computingresource) over a same or a different network. The server 130 may host aweb site. In an example, the web site may be associated with one of theone or more service providers. In this example, the web site may be oneof the web sites providing the web pages 122 and/or the server 130 maybe one of the servers 120. In another example, the web site may beassociated with a different service provider. A request for a web page132 from the web site hosted on the server 130 may be received.Accordingly, the web page 132 may be provided to the computing device110 for, for example, rendering by the browser.

In an example, the server 130 may also host a tracking service 140. Thetracking service 140 may represent a computing service configured tode-anonymize the user of the computing device 110. For example, thetracking service may be configured to track and analyze user actions,classify the user actions based on the analysis, and perform variousactions based on the classification. In particular, the tracking service140 may classify, in connection with providing the web page 132, theuser of the computing device 110. The classification may be based on thevisited web pages 122. Once the user is classified, the tracking service140 may enable customizing the web page 132, customizing another webpage provided to the computing device 110 from the server 130, and/orperform another action as further described herein.

In an example, the tracking service 140 may include various modules toprovide the above functionalities. In particular, the tracking servicemay include a classifier 142, a data collector 144, and an actionmanager 146. Generally, the classifier 142 may be configured tofacilitate classifying the user based on associating the user (or anidentifier of the user) with a user characteristic. For example, theclassifier 142 may maintain a collection of URLs of interest andrespective metadata. The collection may organize the URLs in a list.Metadata of a URL may describe a potential user characteristic of usershaving accessed or accessing a web page corresponding to the URL. Anexample of the classifier 142 is further illustrated in FIG. 2.Classifying the user may involve adding the user (or the identifierthereof) to a group of users having that user characteristic.

The data collector 144 may be configured to enable the tracking service140 to collect data about user actions, such as what web pages may havebeen previously visited (e.g., the web pages 122). The collected datamay be analyzed in light of the classifier 142 to classify the user.Various techniques may be implemented by the data collector 144 tocollect the data. In one example technique, URLs of interest (e.g., onesmaintained by the classifiers 142) may be inserted in the web page 132along with a JavaScript (or any other statements of a suitable scriptinglanguage). The JavaScript may be configured to, upon execution, accessthe browser's history from the local storage of the computing device110, determine whether web pages corresponding to the URLs of interestmay have been accessed, and generate an indication accordingly. FIG. 3further illustrates this technique. In another technique, informationfrom the history may be provided to the tracking service 140 by anapplication of the operating system of the computing device 110 over apredefine communication channel. FIG. 4 further illustrates thistechnique.

The action manager 146 may be configured to allow the tracking service140 to perform (e.g., initiate, initiate and perform, or causeperformance of) certain actions based on the classification of the user.For example, each user characteristic (e.g., as defined in theclassifier 142) may be associated with one or more actions. Theassociations may be maintained by the action manager 146 (and/or theclassifier 142). As such, based on classifying the user as having aparticular user characteristic, the tracking service 140 may perform theassociated action(s).

An example action may include customizing the web page 132, or anotherweb page provided from the server 130. The customization may reflect theassociated user characteristic. For example, the customizing may includeproviding targeted content (e.g., advertisement) based on the usercharacteristic. The targeted content may be inserted in a widget,banner, or other presentation spaces of the provided web page from theserver 130. FIGS. 7 and 8 further illustrate example processes that maybe implemented to perform such actions.

Another example action may include authenticating the user. Inparticular, the user may be associated with an identifier (e.g., a userID). That identifier may be used in connection with accessing the webpage 132. Based on the classification of the user, the tracking service140 may validate the identifier, thereby authenticating the user (orproviding another layer of authentication). FIG. 9 further illustratesan example process that may be implemented to perform such actions.

Yet another example action may include detecting whether the user may bea web crawler. The web crawler may represent a network crawler, networkbot, Internet bot, or a botnet. In other words, the web may beconfigured to access and browse web pages for various purposes (legaland/or malicious) including, for example, scraping content, indexing, orother purposes. Based on the classification of the user (e.g.,indicating that the user may have previously accessed a web page thatonly a web crawler would have accessed, the tracking service 140 maydetect that the user may be the web crawler. Accordingly, the trackingservice 140 may enable alleviating network traffic associated withproviding information to the computing device 110 (hosting the webcrawler). For instance, text but not image data may be provided, or thedata may be sent from a proxy server, or via a particular applicationprogramming interface (API). FIG. 10 further illustrates an exampleprocess that may be implemented to perform such actions.

In one embodiment, the tracking service 140 may be hosted on thecomputing device 110. For example, the browser (or any otherapplication) may add the tracking service 140 as an extension. In thisembodiment, the computing device 110 may locally classify the user andperform an action. As such, even when the computing device 110 isoffline or not connected to the server 130, various actions maynonetheless be performed. From time to time, an update to the trackingservice 140 may be received from the server 130. The update may changeany of the components of the tracking service 140 including theclassifier 142, the data collector 144, and/or the action manager 146.In another embodiment, the tracking service 140 may be distributedbetween the computing device 110, the server 130, other servers, and/orother computing nodes and resources. For example, instances of thetracking service 140 may be hosted on both the computing device 110 andthe server 130. In another example, the classifier 142 and the datacollector 144 may be hosted on the computing device 110, while theaction manager may be hosted on the server 130.

Hence, by implementing a tracking service, such as the tracking service140, a service provider of a web site may determine whether a useraccessing a web page of the web site may have previously accessed otherweb pages of the same web site or of other web sites. Based on theprevious accesses, the user may be classified as having a particularuser characteristic. In turn, a particular action may be performed overa network according to the user characteristic.

A classifier, similar to the classifier 142, may facilitate classifyinga user by associating the user with a user characteristic. FIG. 2illustrates an example of the classifier. As illustrated, a classifier210 may maintain a collection of information (e.g., a list) that mayidentify one or more web sites 220. The web sites 220 may include websites of interest to a service provider. For example, a web site ofinterest may be that of another service provider, such as a web siteoffering similar information or describing similar items as the web siteof the service provider. In another example, a web site of interest maybe the web site of the of the service provider. The web sites 220 may beidentified using different techniques including, for example, a domainname, a URL of a particular web page (e.g., a home page), or an Internetprotocol (IP) address.

For each of the web sites 230, the classifier 210 may also maintain acollection of information (e.g., a list) that may identify web pages230. The web pages 230 may include web pages of interest to the serviceprovider. That interest may vary based on the web page's serviceprovider (or web site) and a desired action to be performed. Forexample, a web page of interest may represent a web page of anotherservice provider providing information or describing an item that mayalso be available from a web page of the service provider. In anotherexample, a web page of interest may represent a particular web page ofthe service provider, such as a login page for authentication a user ora web page typically inaccessible to a web crawler. The web pages 230may be identified using different techniques including, for example,respective URLs.

Further, the classifier 210 may organize the web pages of interest percategory 240. Each category may represent a particular interest of theservice provider. For example, one category may represent web pages ofother service providers, while another category may represent web pagesof the service provider. Within each category, there may be a number ofsub-categories. For example, one sub-category may represent web pagesdescribing items belonging to a particular item category (e.g., webpages about digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras). Anothersub-category may represent web pages describing a particular item (e.g.,web pages about a specific DSLR camera model). The hierarchy ofcategories may be repeated at several levels. The lower the level, themore particular the service provider's interest may be.

The classifier 210 may also maintain associations between the URLs (orthe web pages) and metadata. Metadata associated with a URL may describeone or more potential user characteristics of a user that may have usedthe URL (e.g., operated a computing device to access the respective webpage). For example, the classifier 210 may identify a URL 250 for eachweb page. In turn, the classifier may maintain metadata 260 that maydescribe one or more user characteristics 262 and one or more respectivelikelihoods 264 for each URL. A likelihood may represent the probabilityof a user having the corresponding user characteristic if the URLassociated with the metadata is used.

The user characteristic 262 and the likelihood 264, and more generallythe metadata 260, may be determined from historical data. The historicaldata may include clickstreams of users. The clickstreams may be based onuser accesses to the web site of the service provider or to web sites ofother service providers. In particular, the clickstreams used togenerate the metadata 260 for the URL 250 may include clickstreamsassociated with using the URL 250, accessing the respective web page,and performing various traceable user actions thereat. In anotherexample, the clickstreams may be associated with using a different URL(and a different web page). In this example, the clickstreams related tothe different URL may be used to generate the metadata 260 associatedwith the URL 250 based on a rule. The rule may apply a similarity. Inparticular, the two web pages may be similar for the clickstreams to beusable. Similarity may be based on providing the same or similar (e.g.,having overlapping or equivalent) information or describing the same orsimilar (having common or equivalent features) item(s). For example, thetwo web pages may describe the same item, but may be associated withdifferent web sites.

Hence, a classifier, such as the classifier 210, may be configured tomaintain a collection of URLs of interest and associated metadata. TheURLs may identify web pages and/or web sites of interest. The metadatamay describe user characteristics and likelihoods of users having thesecharacteristics based on accesses to the web pages and/or web sites ofinterest.

The classifier may be used to classify the user as having one or moreuser characteristics. This classification may consider a history ofaccesses to web pages, such as the web pages that the user may havevisited. This history may be collected by a data collector, such as thedata collector 144. In particular, the data collector may implementvarious techniques to collect the data. FIG. 3 illustrates one exampletechnique. This technique may insert URLs of interest in a web page anda JavaScript, executable when the web page is rendered at a computingdevice, to access a browser's history of the computing device anddetermine if the URLs of interest have been previously used. Incomparison, FIG. 4 illustrates another example technique, where thehistory may be received without the need to use the JavaScript. Theexample techniques of FIGS. 3 and 4 may be used separately or inconjunction.

Turning to the details of FIG. 3, an example web page 310 may beconfigured to facilitate a determination of whether a browser's historyof a computing device may include accessed or visited web pages ofinterest. The web page 310 may be associated with a web site of aservice provider. Further, the web page 310 may be provided to thebrowser from a server in response to a request for the web page 310.

The web page 310 may include a set of objects 320 written using certainlanguage, such as HTML, XML, or another language. The objects 320 may beorganized in a document object model (DOM). An object may represent anelement or a component of the web page 310 and may include information.When the browser renders the web page 310, the object may be rendered orcause certain actions to be performed. As such, the objects 320 mayinclude headers, tags, elements, and/or different markup languageobjects.

In an example, the objects 320 may include content 330. The content 330may describe an item or provide information and may include text,images, multimedia, or other information. The objects 320 may alsoinclude URLs 340. The URLs 340 may represent URLs of interest and maycorrespond to web pages of interest. These URLs may be selected from acollection of URLs maintained by a classifier. The objects may alsoinclude a JavaScript 350 (or any other script or object) configured tocause the computing device (or the browser) to perform certain actionswhen rendering the web page 310. These actions may include accessing thebrowser's history, determining whether the history may include the URLs340 of interest, a state and/or a style attribute of an included URL ofinterest, generating an indication of this determination, and/or openinga socket to transmit the indication to a server (e.g., one hosting atracking service, such as the tracking service 140). In an example, anindication may include a portion of the history, such as the found URLsof interest and the associated states and/or style attributes. Inanother example, an indication may include a description that a URL ofinterest may have been found.

When the web page 310 is rendered, the URLs 340 may not be visible to auser. For example, the URLs 340 may be included in tags of elementsconfigured not to be rendered. In another example, the URLs may berendered as a small component (e.g., a one by one pixel) and/or may berendered in an out-of-display portion of the rendered web page 310(e.g., in an invisible frame). This may help against biasing the user tothe visit the corresponding web pages by presenting the URLs 340 to theuser. Similarly, executing the JavaScript 350 and/or resulting actionsmay also be transparent to the user. For example, the execution may runin the background.

As such, when the computing device (e.g., the browser) accesses the webpage 310, the computing device may also use, execute, or run theJavaScript 350 in conjunction with the URLs 340 of interest to generateand provide the indication to the server. In other words, by configuringthe web page 310 to include the URLs 340 and a JavaScript 350, theservice provider may turn computing devices of users accessing the webpage 310 (or various web pages of the service provider's web site)effectively into sensors that may collect information about a history ofaccesses to web pages of interest.

The above technique may collect the history of accessed or visited webpages of interest based on inserting URLs of interest and a JavaScriptin a web page. Other techniques for collecting this data may also beused. In particular, FIG. 4 illustrates collecting the data from thebrowser's history without the need to use the JavaScript.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, an example computing device 410 may beconfigured to provide a history of accessed web pages or an indicationof such accesses to a server of a service provider (e.g., one hosting atracking service, such as the tracking service 140). In an example, thedata collection may be enabled only if the service provider haspermission to access the data.

The permission may be provided by a user (e.g., an owner, anadministrator) of the computing device 410. Additionally oralternatively, the service provider may also be a provider of thecomputing device 410 and may have a certain permitted degree of controlover the computing device. In such a case, the computing device 410 andthe server may be connected over an out-of-band channel. The out-of-bandchannel may represent a network path to a privately accessible resourceof the service provider. This resource may represent a control planethat may include, for example, a platform for providing control andother functions from the server to the computing device 410. As such,the out-of-band channel may allow the service provider to control andprovide certain functions of the computing device 410, such as todownload software updates, remote access, and other functions. Becauseof this control, the out-of-band channel may be available to transmitdata about the history of web page accesses.

In particular, the computing device 410 may execute an application 440configured to perform various actions including, for example, collectingthe history and/or generating the indication based on local storage ofthe computing device 410 (e.g., the history of a browser and/or otherapplication). The application 440 may interface or integrate with thebrowser and/or the other application. In an example, the application 440may include the browser, a browser plug-in, or an applicationindependent of the browser. For instance, the application 440 may beincluded in an operation system 450 of the computing device 410.Further, the application 440 may be triggered to perform one or more ofthe actions. These actions may include accessing the local storage ofthe computing device 410, accessing domain name service (DNS) records,accessing browser's history, determining whether the history and/orrecords may include URLs of interest, a state and/or a style attributeof an included URL of interest, generating an indication of thedetermination, and/or transmitting the indication to the server. Thetransmission may use the out-of-band channel.

Additionally, the application 440 may run in the background and may, attime intervals, perform the one or more actions. The application 440 maybe available on the computing device 410 at a time prior to a userobtaining the computing device 410, or may be installed on the computingdevice 410 after such a time from a data store of the service provider.The service provider may further push updates and other information tothe application 440 from time to time over, for example, the out-of-bandchannel.

As such, by configuring the computing device 410 to include theapplication 440, a service provider may turn the computing deviceeffectively into a sensor to collect information associated withaccesses to web pages. The collected information may be used to providevarious services.

Turning to FIGS. 5-10, the figures illustrate example flows forproviding different web services (or, more generally, network-basedservices) based on a detected history of accesses to web pages (or, moregenerally, network-based documents). In particular, FIG. 5 illustratesan example flow for providing the web services. In comparison, FIG. 6illustrates maintaining a classifier that may be used as a part ofproviding a web service. FIG. 7 illustrates providing a web servicebased on a user characteristic. FIG. 8 illustrates providing targetedcontent as a web service. FIG. 9 illustrates authenticating a user as aweb service. FIG. 10 illustrates detecting a web crawler as a webservice. Some operations across the example flows may be similar. Suchsimilarities are not repeated herein in the interest of clarity ofexplanation.

In the illustrative operations, some of the operations or functions maybe embodied in, and fully or partially automated by, components,modules, and/or services executed by one or more processors. Forexample, a tracking service, such as the tracking service 140, hosted ona computing resource may be configured to perform some or all of theoperations. The tracking service may be implemented on behalf of aservice provider of a web site. Nevertheless, other computing resourcesand services, either alone or in combination, may be additionally oralternatively used. Also, while the operations are illustrated in aparticular order, it should be understood that no particular order isnecessary and that one or more operations may be omitted, skipped,and/or reordered.

In the interest of clarity of explanation, the example flows of FIGS.5-10 illustrate determining if a history of access to web pages mayinclude an access to a particular web page of interest. Nevertheless,the embodiments described herein are not limited as such. Instead, theembodiments may similarly apply to a higher number of web pages ofinterest. In addition, some of the operations of the example flows ofFIGS. 5-10 may include inserting a single URL in a web page andexecuting a JavaScript. Nevertheless, the embodiments described hereinare not limited as such. Instead, the embodiments may similarly apply toinserting a plurality of URLs before, in conjunction with, or afterexecuting the JavaScript. Further, the insertion and execution may beperformed dependently of each other, independently of each other,separately from each other, and/or by different components or services.

Turning to FIG. 5, the example flow may start at operation 502, where aclassifier may be maintained. For example, the tracking service maystore a collection (e.g., a list) of URLs of interest and associatedmetadata. From time to time or continuously, the tracking service mayupdate the collection to include additional URLs, delete existing URLs,or update the metadata. An example flow for maintaining the classifieris further illustrated in FIG. 6.

At operation 504, user data may be collected. For example, the trackingservice may collect data describing a history of access of a user (orthe user's computing device) to web pages. The data may include one ormore indications of the access, or may include the history itself. Theweb pages may be web pages of interest corresponding to some or all ofthe URLs of interest maintained at the classifier. Some of the web pagesmay have been previously visited. In an example, a web page may havebeen previously visited based on an interest of the user (e.g., the useroperating the computing device to access the web page). In anotherexample, a web page may have been previously visited without an explicitknowledge of the user. For instance, in response to a previous requestfor a different, the web page may have been also provided to thecomputing device. The computing device's browser may have rendered thisweb page in an invisible frame. In this example, the web page mayrepresent a web page unique to the user and usable to authenticate theuser.

Various techniques may be used to collect the data. In a firsttechnique, the tracking service may insert a number of URLs of interestand a JavaScript in a requested web page from the computing device, asillustrated in FIG. 3. In a second technique, the tracking service mayreceive the data from an application of the computing device, asillustrated in FIG. 4. In the interest of explanation, FIGS. 6-10illustrate example flows that may implement the first technique.However, the second technique may be similarly implemented separately orin conjunction with the first technique. In particular, once the data iscollected, the tracking service may similarly classify the user based onthe classifier and perform certain actions based on the classification,regardless of which technique may have been implemented to collect thedata.

At operation 506, the user may be classified based on the collecteddata. For example, the tracking service may determine whether aparticular web page of interest may have been previously accessed basedon the collected data. The tracking service may access metadataassociated with a URL of that web page from the classifier. The Metadatamay indicate a user characteristic based on the previous access.Accordingly, the tracking service may classify the user based on theuser characteristic.

At operation 508, an action may be performed based on theclassification. Performing the action may include initiate, initiate andperform, or cause performance of the action. For example, usercharacteristics maintained by the classifier may be associated withactions. One set of actions may include providing targeted content.Another set of actions may include authenticating the user. Yet anotherset of actions may include detecting whether the user may be a webcrawler. The tracking service may accordingly perform one of the actionscorresponding to the user characteristic applicable to the user, asdetermined at operation 506. To illustrate, if the user characteristicindicates that the user may be a shopper having a particular behavior,an advertisement affined to that behavior may be provided. In anotherexample, if the user characteristic indicates an authenticated user, theuser may be authenticated. In yet another example, if the usercharacteristic indicates a characteristic of a web crawler, the user maybe detected as being the web crawler.

The tracking service may use data maintained by a classifier to collectcertain data and to perform certain actions. FIG. 6 illustrates anexample flow for maintaining the classifier. In particular, the exampleflow may start at operation 602, where a web site may be selected. Theweb site may represent a web site of interest. That interest may varybased on the action to be performed. For example, to provide targetedcontent, the web site of interest may be that of another serviceprovider (e.g., of a competitor offering similar items available fromthe service provider's web site). To authenticate a user or detect a webcrawler, the web site of interest may be that of the service provider.

At operation 604, a web page may be selected. The web page may representa web page of interest. Similar to operation 602, the interest may varybased on the action to be performed. For example, to provide targetedcontent, the web page of interest may be that of a particular item or aparticular item category. The targeted content may be associated withthat item or item category. For instance, the targeted content may be anadvertisement about the item. In another example, to authenticate auser, the web page of interest may be a web page configured to validatean identifier of the user. For example, this web page may be one thatmay be unique to the user or that may be accessible to the user onlyafter authentication (e.g., after logging in through a login web page).In yet another example, to detect a web crawler, the web page ofinterest may be a web page configured to be likely accessed only by theweb crawler (or likely accessed by non-web crawlers). Thus, if such aweb page is accessed (or not), the web crawler may be detected. Examplesof the different web pages of interest are further illustrated in FIGS.7-10.

At operation 606, a URL of the web page of interest may be associatedwith metadata. The metadata may describe a user characteristic and alikelihood of a user having accessed the web page to exhibit such a usercharacteristic. For example, if the web page of interest is selected toauthenticate the user or detect the web crawler, the user characteristicmay be of an authenticated user or a web crawler, respectively. On theother hand, if the web page of interest is selected to provide targetedcontent, the user characteristic may describe a characteristic of theuser such as a trait, an interest, gender, age, occupation, hobby, orother characteristics.

In an example, the various user characteristics and likelihoods may bedetermined from historical data associated with accesses to the web pageof interest or to a similar web page (e.g., a web page of the serviceprovider describing the same item that the web page of interest maydescribe). Machine learning algorithms, pattern recognition techniques,and/or regression models may be applied to the historical data to derivethe user characteristics and the likelihoods. A user characteristic maybe set as characteristic observed from the historical data at afrequency that may exceed a threshold. The likelihood of the usercharacteristic may be a function of the frequency. In another example,the historical data may be associated with an item described in the webpage of interest. In turn, the item may be associated with a usercharacteristic. To illustrate, if the web page describes a camera ofcertain complex and advanced features, the associated usercharacteristic may be that of a “professional” photographer.

At operation 608, the URL of the web page of interest may be stored in alist of URLs. These URLs may correspond to other web pages of interestfor which metadata may have been similarly derived as described atoperation 602-604. The URL may also be stored in connection with therespective metadata. For example, the metadata itself may include theURL.

The tracking service may update the classifier from time to time orcontinuously by, for example, analyzing additional historical data,adding new URLs, removing other URLs, and/or updating the metadata. Thetracking service may also use the classifier to classify a user and,accordingly, perform an action. FIG. 7 illustrates an example flow forclassifying a user and performing an action. In the interest of theclarity of explanation, the illustrated action includes providingtargeted content. However, the example flow may be implemented similarlyto perform any or a combination of other actions, such as authenticatingthe user or detecting a web crawler as further illustrated in FIGS. 9and 10.

The example flow of FIG. 7 may start at operation 702, where a requestfor information may be received. For example, the user may operate acomputing device to use a browser and request the web page from the website of the service provider. The web site may be hosted on a server.The computing device's access to the web site may occur via a computingsession with the server. The computing session may be associated with anidentifier (e.g., a session ID). Additionally or alternatively, the usermay be associated with an identifier (e.g., a user ID). The session IDand/or the user ID may be used for various reasons as furtherillustrated in the next operations.

At operation 704, a URL of another web page and a JavaScript, may beinserted in the web page. For example, the tracking service may select aURL of interest from a list of URLs maintained by a classifier. Thetracking service may insert this URL along with the JavaScript asobjects in the web page.

The URL of interest may be selected using various techniques. In onetechnique, the selection may be random. In another technique, theselection may be deterministic based on one or more contexts. Forexample, the user ID may be associated with a user profile. The selectedURL may be based on this profile, as further illustrated in FIG. 8. Inanother example, the session ID may be associated with a clickstream ofthe user. The clickstream may indicate a browsing for a particular typeof an item or for an item category. The selected URL may correspond to aweb page about that item, item type, or item category. In yet anotherexample, the selected URL may correspond to a particular web page ofanother service provider similar to the web page of the serviceprovider. This particular web page may include similar information, aportion of the information, or describe a same item relative to the webpage of the service provider. In a further example, the service providermay have a particular interest in certain web pages of other serviceproviders. The selected URL may be based on this interest and maycorrespond to one of these web pages.

At operation 706, the web page may be provided from the server to thecomputing device in response to the request for information. In turn,the browser of the computing device (or some other application) mayrender the web page. When the web page is rendered, the inserted URL maynot be rendered or be visible to the user. Further, the rendering mayinclude executing the JavaScript. As such, the history of previouslyaccessed or visited web pages may be determined. If the history includesthe URL of interest and/or if the state or the style attribute of thisURL indicates that the URL was used (e.g., the other web pages accessedor visited) prior to the web page being provided, an indication of thisprior access may be generated.

At operation 708, the indication may be received. For example, thetracking service may receive the indication via a socket. The indicationmay include a description (e.g., a flag) of whether the URL of interestmay have been previously used (e.g., the flag set to “yes” or some othervalue if so; otherwise, set to “no” or a default value). In anotherexample, the indication may include a portion of the browsing history.In yet another example, the indication may be received only if the URLwas previously used.

At operation 710, the user may be associated with a user characteristicbased on the indication. For example, if the indication indicates thatthe user has previously used the URL of interest and accessed thecorresponding web page, the tracking service may associate the user (orthe user ID) with the user characteristic. The tracking service maydetermine the user characteristic from the metadata associated with theURL of interest and maintained at the classifier.

A user profile may also be maintained for the user. For example, theuser profile may be a part of a user account at the web site of theservice provider. As such, when the user is associated with the usercharacteristic, the tracking service may update the user profile to alsoinclude the user characteristic and, optionally, the respectivelikelihood. In an example, this update may be based on the user ID. Overtime, the user profile may be updated with different usercharacteristics based on a history of accesses to web pages of interest.The tracking service may use information from the user profile (e.g.,the added or updated user characteristics) to select what URLs ofinterest may be inserted in web pages provided to the user's computingdevice and/or to further refine the information (e.g., the selectedtargeted content) provided in computing sessions between the computingdevice and the server. FIG. 8 illustrates an example flow that may usethe user profile.

In particular, the example flow of FIG. 8 may start at operation 802,where the user (or the user ID) may be associated with the usercharacteristic based on an indication that a web page was previouslyaccessed. This association may implement some or all of the operationsof the example flow of FIG. 7.

At operation 804, targeted content may be provided to the user'scomputing device based on the association. By associating the user withthe user characteristic, the tracking service may have classified theuser in a group of users that may share that user characteristic. Thisclassification may enable various actions to be performed, includingproviding the targeted content. The targeted content may be content(e.g., advertisement) of the service provider. For example, the contentmay relate to an item available for ordering from the web site of theservice provider. The targeted content may be selected from availablecontent based on various parameters. For example, the targeted contentmay be selected based on being associated with the group of users orbased on having a particular affinity to the user characteristic. Toillustrate, if the user characteristic indicates that the user may havea particular hobby, the targeted content may be an advertisement for anitem that may relate to the hobby. In another example, the targetedcontent may be selected based on the requested web page or the web pageof interest. To illustrate, any or both of the web pages may describe anitem. Accordingly, the targeted content may include an advertisementabout this item. Further, when provided to the user's computing device,the targeted content may be rendered in a space (e.g., a widget, abanner) of the requested web page or any other web page that the usermay subsequently visit.

At operation 806, the user profile may be updated based on theassociation. For example, the tracking service may access the userprofile based on the user ID and add the user characteristic to the userprofile. If the user profile already contains the user characteristic,the respective likelihood may be updated (e.g., increased). In addition,the tracking service may associate the session ID with the added usercharacteristic. This may allow tracking the addition and frequencies ofuser characteristics over time by keeping track of what usercharacteristic(s) may have been observed in each computing session.

At operation 808, another computing session may exist. For example, theuser (or the computing device) may have left and then revisited the website. This new computing session may be associated with a new session IDand the same user ID. In addition, the user may request the same or adifferent web page during this new session. Accordingly, the trackingservice may collect again data about the history of the user access toweb pages of interest based on inserting respective URLs in therequested web page. In an example, the tracking service may insert a URLof interest based on the user profile. This selection may followdifferent approaches. In one approach, the tracking service may focus ona particular user characteristic. For instance, if the user profileindicates a particular user characteristic, the tracking service mayselect the URL of interest as one associated with metadata containingthat user characteristic. This may allow the tracking service to furthercollect data about the user characteristic and update the respectivelikelihood accordingly. In another approach, the tracking service maydiversify the data collection. For instance, if the user profileindicates a particular user characteristic, the tracking service mayselect a URL of interest that may correspond to another usercharacteristic. This may allow the collection of data about the othercharacteristic.

At operation 810, targeted content may be provided in the new computingsession based on the user profile. For example, the tracking service mayselect targeted content based on a particular user characteristic fromthe user profile (e.g., one having the highest likelihood or havinglikelihood over a certain threshold). In another example, the trackingservice may also consider the user characteristics as a function of thesession ID. For instance, if the user profile indicates that aparticular user characteristic may have been observed in only a numberof recent computing sessions (e.g., in the last three sessions within anhour of the new computing session, the user browsed a particular cameramodel), the tracking service may determine that this user characteristicmay be more relevant than other observed characteristics over time.Accordingly, the tracking service may select content targeted to thatparticular user characteristic (e.g., a discount applicable topurchasing the camera).

In addition to providing targeted content, user authentication may beprovided as a service based on the user's history of access to webpages. This history may be used as a factor in the authentication alongwith the user ID. FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow for authenticatingthe user.

In particular, the example flow of FIG. 9 may start at operation 902,where a request for information may be received. For example, the usermay operate the computing device and request a web page that may includethe information. The request may be used as a trigger to authenticatethe user based on different approaches.

In one approach, the trigger may be associated with a login web page. Inother words, when the received request is for a login web page, thatrequest may trigger the tracking service to use the history of accessedweb pages as a factor in the authentication. This factor may be used inconjunction with other authentication factors. For example, the loginweb page may be configured to authenticate the user based on a usernameand a password. Further authenticating the user based on the history ofaccessed web pages may be an additional authentication factor. Inanother approach, the trigger need not be the login web page. Instead,the trigger may be associated with any web page. In this approach, theuser ID may be authenticated in conjunction with receiving a request forany web page of the service provider's web site. In this approach, ifauthenticated, the user may be given access to certain information orportions of the web site that would have been inaccessible otherwise.

At operation 904, a URL of another web page of the web site and aJavaScript may be inserted in the requested web page. This other webpage may be a particular web page that may allow the authentication ofthe user (or user ID) based on the history of the web page accessed.Generally, the particular web page may be selected based on the user ID.For example, the particular web page may represent a web page unique tothe user (or user ID) and/or that may have been accessed by or may beaccessible to only the user. Different approaches may be used to selectthis particular web page. In one approach, the particular web page mayrepresent a web page that may follow a successful authentication of theuser through the login web page (e.g., one that may be accessed uniquelyby the user after being authenticated through the login web page).

In another approach, the particular web page may be uniquely set-up forthe user independently of the login web page. For example, theparticular web page may have a particular URL. This URL may use (e.g.,include or append) the user ID, a hash of the user ID, and/or a hash ofinformation about the user (e.g., from the user account). Thisparticular web page may only be accessible if the proper user ID waspresented. Further, the particular web page may have been provided toand accessed by the user's computing device in a previous computingsession. However, this access may be transparent to the user. Forexample, the particular web page may have been rendered in an invisibleframe (e.g., one rendered in a window with a size set to zero, or onerendered outside a visible window).

Once the particular web page is selected, the respective URL may beinserted in the requested web page. In addition, the JavaScript may beconfigured to, upon execution, access the history of the computingdevice's browser (or any other application) to determine whether thisURL may be found in the browser's history and/or the state or styleinformation of the URL.

At operation 906, the requested web page may be provided to thecomputing device. As such, when this web page is rendered at thecomputing device, the JavaScript may be executed to determine whetherthe particular web page was accessed prior to providing the requestedweb page, and to generate an indication of this determination. Theindication may be sent to the tracking service.

At operation 908, the indication may be received. For example, thetracking service may receive the indication based on the executedJavaScript accessing the browser's history.

At operation 910, the user (or user ID) may be authenticated based onthe indication. Generally, if the indication indicates that theparticular web page was previously accessed, the tracking service mayauthenticate the user (e.g., validate the user ID). Otherwise, thetracking service may determine that the user is unauthenticated. Theauthentication process may be based on the requested web page. Forexample, if the requested web page was the login web page, theindication may be used as one factor in the authentication process thatmay also include using the username and password. In another example, ifthe requested web page was not the login web page, the indication on itsown may be sufficient to authenticate the user. In particular, theindication that the particular web page was previously accessed mayrepresent that the user ID from this computing session may be the sameuser ID used in a previous computing session.

The tracking service may provide different services based onauthenticating the user. Some of these services may relate to providingtargeted content and/or detecting a web crawler. For example, anauthenticated user may be provided access to targeted content (e.g.,special deals) otherwise unavailable to an unauthenticated user. Inanother example, a computing device of an authenticated user may beidentified as also being authenticated. For instance, an identifier ofthe computing device may be added to a list of trusted devices and/or toa list of devices associated with non-web crawlers.

The authentication process may include additional steps if theindication indicates that the particular web page was not previouslyaccessed. In particular, this lack of access may not, in certainsituations, accurately reflect that the particular web page was notpreviously accessed. For example, the user may have cleared thebrowser's history prior to the current computing session. In anotherexample, the user may be a new user (e.g., one that recently opened auser account). As such, the authentication process may check for thesesituations.

For example, the JavaScript may be further configured to check theamount of the history (e.g., byte size) or the number of visited URLs inthe history. If the amount or the number is below a threshold, thetracking service may nonetheless authenticate the user (e.g., based onthe username and password). However, if the threshold is exceeded, thetracking service may not authenticate the user.

In another example, the authentication process may also includedetermining a time when the user account was generated. If that time isless than a threshold (e.g., the user account was recently opened), thetracking service may nonetheless authenticate the user (e.g., based onthe username and password). Otherwise, the tracking service may notauthenticate the user.

In addition to providing targeted content, an authenticating a user,detecting a web crawler may be provided as a service based on the user'shistory of access to web pages. In particular, the user may include theweb crawler. For example, the web crawler may be hosted on the computingdevice and may be accessing web pages of the service provider's website. FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow for detecting the web crawler.

In particular, the example flow of FIG. 10 may start at operation 1002,where a request for information may be received from the computingdevice. The information may be available from a web page of the serviceprovider's website.

At operation 1004, a URL of another web page and a JavaScript may beinserted in the requested web page. The other web page may represent aparticular web page of interest such that access to the particular webpage may facilitate a determination of whether the computing device maybe hosting the web crawler. Various approaches may be used to set-up andselect this particular web page.

In one approach, the particular web page may be set up to be likely(e.g., with likelihood exceeding a threshold) accessible to the webcrawler and likely inaccessible to non-web crawlers. In other words, theparticular web page may be unique to web crawlers and may be a part of,for example, a botnet honeypot. Generally, a botnet honeypot may includeone or more web pages, a web site, and/or underlying infrastructure(e.g., hosting computing system) that may appear to be part of anetwork, but that may actually be isolated and monitored. That networkmay contain information or a resource of value to web crawler such thatthe web crawler may likely access the network (e.g., one of the webpages). As such, if the particular web page was previously accessedunder this approach, this previous access may indicate that thecomputing device may be hosting the web crawler.

In another approach, the particular web page may be set up to be likely(e.g., with likelihood exceeding a threshold) inaccessible to the webcrawler and likely accessible to non-web crawlers. In other words, theparticular web page may be unique to non-web crawlers. For example, theparticular web page may represent a web page commonly or frequentlyaccessed by non-web crawlers (e.g., a home page) and may belong to acertain portion of the web site. A robots exclusion protocol of the website may identify that portion of the web site, including the particularweb page, to be inaccessible to web crawlers. As such, while frequentlyaccessed by non-web crawlers, the web crawler may unlikely access thisparticular web page. Under this approach, if the particular web page wasnot previously accessed, the lack of the previous access may indicatethat the computing device may be hosting the web crawler.

The tracking service may select the particular web page and,accordingly, insert the corresponding URL in the requested web page. Inaddition, the tracking service may insert the JavaScript. The JavaScriptmay be configured to, upon execution, access the history of thecomputing device's browser (or any other application implementing a webcrawler) to determine whether this URL may be found in the browser'shistory and/or the state or style information of the URL.

At operation 1006, the requested web page may be provided to thecomputing device. This may cause the execution of the JavaScript. Inturn, an indication of whether the particular web page was accessedprior to providing the requested web page may be generated. Theindication may be sent to the tracking service.

At operation 1008, the indication may be received. For example, thetracking service may receive the indication based on the execution ofthe JavaScript.

At operation 1010, the web crawler may be detected based on theindication. This detection may also depend on the approach implementedto select the particular web page. For example, if the particular webpage was unique to the web crawler, and if the indication indicates thatthis particular web page was previously accessed, the tracking servicemay detect the web crawler. In another example, if the particular webpage was unique to non-web crawlers, and if the indication indicatesthat this particular web page was not previously accessed, the trackingservice may detect the web crawler.

In addition, in conjunction with or subsequent to detecting the webcrawler, the web service may implement additional sub-operations tofurther validate the detection. For example, the tracking service mayupdate the JavaScript or insert another JavaScript in the same requestedweb page or in another web page provided to the computing device. Theupdated or new JavaScript may be configured to execute after a timedelay (e.g., a number of seconds) and check access to any web page(e.g., a commonly accessed web page). Typically, the web crawler mayscrap the web page in less time than the time delay. Accordingly, theweb crawler may not execute this JavaScript. Thus, not receiving anindication based on this JavaScript may indicate that the computingdevice may be hosting the web crawler. Conversely, if an indication isreceived about the web page having been accessed, the tracking servicemay detect a non-web crawler. In another example, an additional URL maybe inserted. As inserted, the additional URL may be configured to berendered as an image. Typically, the web crawler may use a headlessbrowser that may not render images. Accordingly, the web crawler may notfollow the additional URL and may not access a corresponding web page.Thus, not receiving a request for the corresponding web page mayindicate that the computing device may be hosting the web crawler.

Once the web crawler is detected, the tracking service may performadditional actions associated with this user characteristic (e.g., beinga web crawler). Generally, these additional actions may alleviate orsupport managing the network traffic to the web site such that theexperience of non-web crawlers may be improved. For example, therequested information (as described at operation 1002) or a portionthereof may be provided through a particular network path. Inparticular, the information may be provided from a source (e.g., a proxyserver) or through a programming application interface (API) differentfrom the one used to provide information to non-crawler. In anotherexample, a subset rather than the entire information may be provided.For example, text but not image data may be provided.

Monitoring a history of accesses to web pages may enable providingvarious services to a user. Such monitoring and service providing may beimplemented as a part of an electronic marketplace offering items to theusers. FIG. 11 illustrates an example environment of an electronicmarketplace.

In particular, a service provider 1110 of an electronic marketplace 1112may implement a tracking service 1116, similar to the tracking service140, on a computing system. The tracking service 1116 may be configuredto classify a user and provide a service based on the classification.

In an embodiment, the electronic marketplace 1112 may provide a website, to access information about the offered items. The electronicmarketplace 1112 may also provide an electronic platform to offer theitems and to maintain information about the items and the offers. Forexample, the offered items may be cataloged in an item catalog 1114. Theitem catalog 1114 may represent a data structure describing theinformation about the items. An item may be associated with one or morepages of the item catalog 1114, where the page(s) may describeattributes of the item, the offer, and other information associated withoffering the item at the electronic marketplace 1112.

A web page of the electronic marketplace 1112 may be associated with anitem. The web page may use information from the item catalog 1114. In anexample, the web page may allow sellers 1140 and/or the service provider1110 to define offers of items. For instance, the sellers 1140 may listoffers 1144. The provided information may be added to the item catalog1114. The web page may also allow customers 1130 to review theinformation available from the item catalog 1114 (e.g., offers) and makeorder or purchase decisions. The customers 1130 may, for example, submitweb page request 1134 to view information about items, make purchasedecisions, and conduct various transactions.

In response to a customer's request for a web page, the tracking service1116 may select and insert URLs of web pages of interest and aJavaScript configured to determine whether any of these URLs may havebeen previously accessed. The web page may be provided to the customer(or the customer's computing device) for rendering. When rendered, anindication of the previous access may be received by the trackingservice 1116. Accordingly, the tracking service may classify thecustomer and perform an action.

As such, the service provider 1110 may operate the electronicmarketplace 1112 to facilitate interactions between the service provider1110, the customers 1130, and the sellers 1140 over a network 1160. Eachone of the sellers 1140 may operate one or more seller devices 1142A-Nto access the electronic marketplace 1112 and perform variousseller-related functions. A customer may be an item recipient, a buyer,or any user reviewing, browsing, ordering, obtaining, purchasing, orreturning an item of a seller. Each one of the customers 1130 mayoperate one or more customer devices 1132A-K to access the electronicmarketplace 1112 and perform various customer-related functions. Byimplementing the tracking service 1116, the service provider 1110 mayautomatically classify a customer and provide a respective service.

Turning to FIG. 12, that figure illustrates an example end-to-endcomputing environment for a history of accesses to web pages may enableproviding various services to a user. In this example, a serviceprovider may implement a tracking service to provide various servicesassociated with offering items. The items may be offered at anelectronic marketplace by a seller 1210 and/or the service provider andmay be available for ordering by a customer 1260.

In a basic configuration, the seller 1210 may utilize a seller device1212 to access local applications, a web service application 1220, aseller account accessible through the web service application 1220, aweb site or any other network-based resources via one or more networks1280. In some aspects, the web service application 1220, the web site,and/or the seller account may be hosted, managed, and/or otherwiseprovided by one or more computing resources of the service provider,such as by utilizing one or more service provider devices 1230. Theseller 1210 may use the local applications and/or the web serviceapplication 1220 to interact with the network-based resources of theservice provider and perform seller-related transactions. Thesetransactions may include, for example, offering items for sale. Some orall of these transactions may use web pages of the service provider.

In some examples, the seller device 1212 may be any type of computingdevices such as, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a smart phone, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a thin-clientdevice, a tablet PC, etc. In one illustrative configuration, the sellerdevice 1212 may contain communications connection(s) that allow theseller device 1212 to communicate with a stored database, anothercomputing device or server, seller terminals, and/or other devices onthe networks 1280. The seller device 1212 may also include input/output(I/O) device(s) and/or ports, such as for enabling connection with akeyboard, a mouse, a pen, a voice input device, a touch input device, adisplay, speakers, a printer, etc.

The seller device 1212 may also include at least one or more processingunits (or processor device(s)) 1214 and one memory 1216. The processordevice(s) 1214 may be implemented as appropriate in hardware,computer-executable instructions, firmware, or combinations thereof.Computer-executable instructions or firmware implementations of theprocessor device(s) 1214 may include computer-executable ormachine-executable instructions written in any suitable programminglanguage to perform the various functions described.

The memory 1216 may store program instructions that are loadable andexecutable on the processor device(s) 1214, as well as data generatedduring the execution of these programs. Depending on the configurationand type of seller device 1212, the memory 1216 may be volatile (such asrandom access memory (RAM)) and/or non-volatile (such as read-onlymemory (ROM), flash memory, etc.). The seller device 1212 may alsoinclude additional storage, which may include removable storage and/ornon-removable storage. The additional storage may include, but is notlimited to, magnetic storage, optical disks, and/or tape storage. Thedisk drives and their associated computer-readable media may providenon-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, and other data for the computing devices. In someimplementations, the memory 1216 may include multiple different types ofmemory, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), or ROM.

Turning to the contents of the memory 1216 in more detail, the memorymay include an operating system (O/S) 1218 and the one or moreapplication programs or services for implementing the features disclosedherein including the web service application 1220. In some examples, theseller device 1212 may be in communication with the service providerdevices 1230 via the networks 1280, or via other network connections.The networks 1280 may include any one or a combination of many differenttypes of networks, such as cable networks, the Internet, wirelessnetworks, cellular networks, and other private and/or public networks.While the illustrated example represents the seller 1210 accessing theweb service application 1220 over the networks 1280, the describedtechniques may equally apply in instances where the seller 1210interacts with the service provider devices 1230 via the seller device1212 over a landline phone, via a kiosk, or in any other manner. It isalso noted that the described techniques may apply in otherclient/server arrangements (e.g., set-top boxes, etc.), as well as innon-client/server arrangements (e.g., locally stored applications,peer-to-peer systems, etc.).

Similarly, a customer 1260 may utilize customer device 1262 to accesslocal applications, a web service application 1270, a customer accountaccessible through the web service application 1270, a web site, or anyother network-based resources via the networks 1280. In some aspects,the web service application 1270, the web site, and/or the user accountmay be hosted, managed, and/or otherwise provided by the serviceprovider devices 1230 and may be similar to the web service application1220, the web site accessed by the computing device 1212, and/or theseller account, respectively.

The customer 1260 may use the local applications and/or the web serviceapplication 1270 to conduct transactions with the network-basedresources of the service provider. These transactions may include, forexample, browsing for items, viewing items, ordering items, reviewingitems, returning items, and/or other transactions. Some or all of thesetransactions may use web pages of the service provider.

In some examples, the customer device 1262 may be configured similarlyto the seller device 1212 and may include at least one or moreprocessing units (or processor device(s)) 1264 and one memory 1266. Theprocessor device(s) 1264 may be implemented as appropriate in hardware,computer-executable instructions, firmware, or combinations thereofsimilarly to the processor device(s) 1214. Likewise, the memory 1266 mayalso be configured similarly to the memory 1216 and may store programinstructions that are loadable and executable on the processor device(s)1264, as well as data generated during the execution of these programs.For example, the memory 1266 may include an operating system (O/S) 1268and the one or more application programs or services for implementingthe features disclosed herein including the web service application1270.

As described briefly above, the web service applications 1220 and 1270may allow the seller 1210 and customer 1260, respectively, to interactwith the service provider devices 1230 to conduct transactions involvingitems. The service provider devices 1230, perhaps arranged in a clusterof servers or as a server farm, may host the web service applications1220 and 1270. These servers may be configured to host a web site (orcombination of web sites) viewable via the computing devices 1212 and1262. Other server architectures may also be used to host the webservice applications 1220 and 1270. The web service applications 1220and 1270 may be capable of handling requests from many sellers 1210 andcustomers 1260, respectively, and serving, in response, variousinterfaces that may be rendered at the computing devices 1212 and 1262such as, but not limited to, a web site. The web service applications1220 and 1270 may interact with any type of web site that supportsinteraction, including social networking sites, electronic retailers,informational sites, blog sites, search engine sites, news andentertainment sites, and so forth. As discussed above, the describedtechniques may similarly be implemented outside of the web serviceapplications 1220 and 1270, such as with other applications running onthe computing devices 1212 and 1262, respectively.

The service provider devices 1230 may, in some examples, providenetwork-based resources such as, but not limited to, applications forpurchase and/or download, web sites, web hosting, client entities, datastorage, data access, management, virtualization, etc. The serviceprovider devices 1230 may also be operable to provide web hosting,computer application development, and/or implementation platforms, orcombinations of the foregoing to the seller 1210 and customer 1260.

The service provider devices 1230 may be any type of computing devicesuch as, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a servercomputer, a thin-client device, a tablet PC, etc. The service providerdevices 1230 may also contain communications connection(s) that allowservice provider devices 1230 to communicate with a stored database,other computing devices or servers, seller terminals, and/or otherdevices on the network 1280. The service provider devices 1230 may alsoinclude input/output (I/O) device(s) and/or ports, such as for enablingconnection with a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, a voice input device, atouch input device, a display, speakers, a printer, etc.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the service provider devices 1230 maybe executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in a hostedcomputing environment. The hosted computing environment may include oneor more rapidly provisioned and released network-based resources. Suchnetwork-based resources may include computing, networking, and/orstorage devices. A hosted computing environment may also be referred toas a cloud computing environment. In some examples, the service providerdevices 1230 may be in communication with the computing devices 1212 and1262 via the networks 1280, or via other network connections. Theservice provider devices 1230 may include one or more servers, perhapsarranged in a cluster, or as individual servers not associated with oneanother.

In one illustrative configuration, the service provider devices 1230 mayinclude at least one or more processing units (or processor devices(s))1232 and one memory 1234. The processor device(s) 1232 may beimplemented as appropriate in hardware, computer-executableinstructions, firmware, or combinations thereof. Computer-executableinstruction or firmware implementations of the processor device(s) 1232may include computer-executable or machine-executable instructionswritten in any suitable programming language to perform the variousfunctions described.

The memory 1234 may store program instructions that are loadable andexecutable on the processor device(s) 1232, as well as data generatedduring the execution of these programs. Depending on the configurationand type of the service provider devices 1230, the memory 1234 may bevolatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and/or non-volatile (suchas read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.). The service providerdevices 1230 may also include additional removable storage and/ornon-removable storage including, but not limited to, magnetic storage,optical disks, and/or tape storage. The disk drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media may provide non-volatile storage ofcomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, andother data for the computing devices. In some implementations, thememory 1234 may include multiple different types of memory, such asstatic random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM),or ROM.

Additionally, the computer storage media described herein may includecomputer-readable communication media such as computer-readableinstructions, program modules, or other data transmitted within a datasignal, such as a carrier wave, or other transmission. Such atransmitted signal may take any of a variety of forms including, but notlimited to, electromagnetic, optical, or any combination thereof.However, as used herein, computer-readable media does not includecomputer-readable communication media.

Turning to the contents of the memory 1234 in more detail, the memorymay include an operating system (O/S) 1236, code for an electronicmarketplace 1238, data related to an item catalog 1240, and code for atracking service 1242. Although FIG. 12 illustrates the various data asstored in the memory 1234, this data or portion of the data may beadditionally or alternatively stored at a storage device remotelyaccessible to the service provider devices 1230.

Turning to FIG. 13, the figure illustrates aspects of an exampleenvironment 1300 capable of implementing the above-described structuresand functions. As will be appreciated, although a Web-based environmentis used for purposes of explanation, different environments may be used,as appropriate, to implement various embodiments. The environmentincludes an electronic client device 1302, which may include anyappropriate device operable to send and receive requests, messages, orinformation over an appropriate network(s) 1304 and convey informationback to a user of the device. Examples of such client devices includepersonal computers, cell phones, handheld messaging devices, laptopcomputers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants, electronic bookreaders, or any other computing device. The network(s) 1304 may includeany appropriate network, including an intranet, the Internet, a cellularnetwork, a local area network or any other such network or combinationthereof. Components used for such a system may depend at least in partupon the type of network and/or environment selected. Protocols andcomponents for communicating via such a network are well known and willnot be discussed herein in detail. Communication over the network may beenabled by wired or wireless connections and combinations thereof. Inthis example, the network includes the Internet, and the environmentincludes a Web server 1306 for receiving requests and serving content inresponse thereto, although for other networks an alternative deviceserving a similar purpose could be used as would be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server1308 and a data store 1310. It should be understood that there may beseveral application servers, layers, or other elements, processes orcomponents, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which mayinteract to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriatedata store. As used herein the term “data store” refers to any device orcombination of devices capable of storing, accessing, and/or retrievingdata, which may include any combination and number of data servers,databases, data storage devices and data storage media, in any standard,distributed or clustered environment. The application server may includeany appropriate hardware and software for integrating with the datastore as needed to execute aspects of one or more applications for theclient device, handling a majority of the data access and business logicfor an application. The application server 1308 provides access controlservices in cooperation with the data store 1310, and is able togenerate content such as text, graphics, audio files and/or video filesto be transferred to the user, which may be served to the user by theWeb server in the form of HTML, XML or another appropriate structuredlanguage in this example. The handling of all requests and responses, aswell as the delivery of content between the client device 1302 and theapplication server 1308, may be handled by the Web server 1306. Itshould be understood that the Web and application servers 1306 and 1308are not required and are merely example components, as structured codediscussed herein may be executed on any appropriate device or hostmachine as discussed elsewhere herein.

The data store 1310 may include several separate data tables, databasesor other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data relating toa particular aspect. For example, the data store 1310 illustratedincludes mechanisms for storing production data 1312 and userinformation 1316, which may be used to serve content for the productionside. The data store 1310 is also shown to include a mechanism forstoring log data 1314, which may be used for reporting, analysis, orother such purposes. It should be understood that there may be manyother aspects that may need to be stored in the data store 1310, such asfor page image information and to access correct information, which maybe stored in any of the above listed mechanisms as appropriate or inadditional mechanisms in the data store 1310. The data store 1310 isoperable, through logic associated therewith, to receive instructionsfrom the application server 1308 and obtain, update or otherwise processdata in response thereto. In one example, a user might submit a searchrequest for a certain type of item. In this case, the data store mightaccess the user information to verify the identity of the user, and mayaccess the catalog detail information to obtain information about itemsof that type. The information then may be returned to the user, such asin a results listing on a web page that the user is able to view via abrowser on the client device 1302. Information for a particular item ofinterest may be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser.

Each server typically will include an operating system that providesexecutable program instructions for the general administration andoperation of that server, and typically will include a computer-readablestorage medium (e.g., a hard disk, random access memory, read onlymemory, etc.) storing instructions that, when executed by a processor ofthe server, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitableimplementations for the operating system and general functionality ofthe servers are known or commercially available, and are readilyimplemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly inlight of the disclosure herein.

The environment in one embodiment is a distributed computing environmentutilizing several computer systems and components that areinterconnected via communication links, using one or more computernetworks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operate equallywell in a system having fewer or a greater number of components than areillustrated in FIG. 13. Thus, the depiction of environment 1300 in FIG.13 should be taken as being illustrative in nature, and not limiting tothe scope of the disclosure.

The various embodiments further may be implemented in a wide variety ofoperating environments, which in some cases may include one or more usercomputers, computing devices or processing devices which may be used tooperate any of a number of applications. User or client devices mayinclude any of a number of general purpose personal computers, such asdesktop or laptop computers running a standard operating system, as wellas cellular, wireless and handheld devices running mobile software andcapable of supporting a number of networking and messaging protocols.Such a system also may include a number of workstations running any of avariety of commercially available operating systems and other knownapplications for purposes such as development and database management.These devices also may include other electronic devices, such as dummyterminals, thin-clients, gaming systems and other devices capable ofcommunicating via a network.

Most embodiments utilize at least one network that would be familiar tothose skilled in the art for supporting communications using any of avariety of commercially-available protocols, such as TCP/IP, OSI, FTP,UPnP, NFS, CIFS, and AppleTalk. The network may be, for example, a localarea network, a wide-area network, a virtual private network, theInternet, an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network,an infrared network, a wireless network, and any combination thereof.

In embodiments utilizing a Web server, the Web server may run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTPservers, CGI servers, data servers, Java servers, and businessapplication servers. The server(s) may also be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response to requests from user devices, such asby executing one or more Web applications that may be implemented as oneor more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava®, C, C# or C++, or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python orTCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) may also includedatabase servers, including without limitation those commerciallyavailable from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase®, and IBM®.

The environment may include a variety of data stores and other memoryand storage media as discussed above. These may reside in a variety oflocations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) oneor more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computersacross the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the informationmay reside in a storage-area network (SAN) familiar to those skilled inthe art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functionsattributed to the computers, servers or other network devices may bestored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includescomputerized devices, each such device may include hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, forexample, at least one central processing unit (CPU), at least one inputdevice (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touch screen or keypad),and at least one output device (e.g., a display device, printer orspeaker). Such a system may also include one or more storage devices,such as disk drives, optical storage devices, and solid-state storagedevices such as RAM or ROM, as well as removable media devices, memorycards, flash cards, etc.

Such devices also may include a computer-readable storage media reader,a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless orwired), an infrared communication device, etc.) and working memory asdescribed above. The computer-readable storage media reader may beconnected with, or configured to receive, a computer-readable storagemedium, representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storagedevices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanentlycontaining, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readableinformation. The system and various devices also typically will includea number of software applications, modules, services or other elementslocated within at least one working memory device, including anoperating system and application programs, such as a client applicationor web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments mayhave numerous variations from that described above. For example,customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements mightbe implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, suchas applets) or both. Further, connection to other computing devices suchas network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer-readable media for containing code, orportions of code, may include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as, but notlimited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memoryor other memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD, or other optical storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices or any other medium which may be used to storethe desired information and which may be accessed by the a systemdevice. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a personof ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and/or methodsto implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. However, it will beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the disclosure asset forth in the claims.

Other variations are within the spirit of the present disclosure. Thus,while the disclosed techniques are susceptible to various modificationsand alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereofare shown in the drawings and have been described above in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit thedisclosure to the specific form or forms disclosed, but on the contrary,the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructionsand equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure,as defined in the appended claims.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in thecontext of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both thesingular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearlycontradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,”and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning“including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. The term“connected” is to be construed as partly or wholly contained within,attached to, or joined together, even if there is something intervening.Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as ashorthand method of referring individually to each separate valuefalling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and eachseparate value is incorporated into the specification as if it wereindividually recited herein. All methods described herein may beperformed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein orotherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and allexamples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, isintended merely to better illuminate embodiments of the disclosure anddoes not pose a limitation on the scope of the disclosure unlessotherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construedas indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice ofthe disclosure.

Disjunctive language such as that included in the phrase “at least oneof X, Y, or Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwiseunderstood within the context as used in general to present that anitem, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof(e.g., X, Y, and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generallyintended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require atleast one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z in order foreach to be present.

Preferred embodiments of this disclosure are described herein, includingthe best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the disclosure.Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to thoseof ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Theinventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations asappropriate, and the inventors intend for the disclosure to be practicedotherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, thisdisclosure includes all modifications and equivalents of the subjectmatter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicablelaw. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in allpossible variations thereof is encompassed by the disclosure unlessotherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

All references, including publications, patent applications, andpatents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the sameextent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicatedto be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entiretyherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:maintaining, by a computer system associated with an electronicmarketplace, a collection of universal resource locators (URLs) andmetadata, the metadata describing user characteristics associated withaccess to a plurality of web pages corresponding to the collection ofURLs; receiving, by the computer system from a computing device of auser, a request for information about an item offered with theelectronic marketplace; inserting, by the computer system in a first webpage, code and a URL of the collection of URLs, the first web pageassociated with the electronic marketplace and comprising theinformation about the item, the URL corresponding to a second web pageof the web pages, the code configured to, upon execution, determinewhether the second web page was accessed; providing, by the computersystem, the first web page to the computing device based at least inpart on the request for the information; receiving, by the computersystem from the computing device, an indication that the second web pagewas accessed prior to providing the first web page to the computingdevice, the indication received based at least in part on an executionof the code at the computing device; and associating, by the computersystem, the user with a user characteristic from the metadata based atleast in part on the indication, the user characteristic correspondingto the URL corresponding to the second web page.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: providingtargeted content available from the electronic marketplace to thecomputing device based at least in part on the user being associatedwith the user characteristic and based at least in part on the secondweb page comprising a portion of the information about the item.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second web page isassociated with a login at the electronic marketplace, wherein the usercharacteristic indicates an authenticated user, and further comprising:authenticating the user based at least in part on the user beingassociated with the user characteristic.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the second web page is configured forexclusive access of a web crawler, wherein the user characteristicindicates a characteristic of the web crawler, and further comprising:determining that the user represents the web crawler based at least inpart on the user being associated with the user characteristic.
 5. Oneor more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, whenexecuted with one or more processors, cause a system to at least:provide a first network-based document to a computing system associatedwith a user account, the first network-based document comprising atleast an identifier of a second network-based document and code, thecode configured at least to, upon execution, determine whether thesecond network-based document was accessed prior to providing the firstnetwork-based document; determine an indication of whether the secondnetwork-based document was accessed based at least in part on anexecution of the code at the computing system; and associate the useraccount with a user characteristic based at least in part on theindication.
 6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 5,wherein the first network-based document comprises a web page associatedwith an electronic marketplace, wherein the identifier of the secondnetwork-based document comprises a universal resource locator, andwherein the code comprises statements of a programmatic scriptinglanguage in accordance with an ECMAScript standard.
 7. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted with the one or more processors, further cause the system to atleast: maintain metadata and a collection of identifiers ofnetwork-based documents comprising the second network-based document,wherein the metadata describes a user characteristic associated withaccess of users to the second network-based document.
 8. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 7, wherein the identifier of the secondnetwork-based document is added to the first network-based documentbased at least in part on a selection of the second network-baseddocument from the collection, wherein the selection is based at least inpart on a context associated with providing the first network-baseddocument to the computing system, wherein the context comprises at leastone of: an identifier of the user account, an identifier of a computingsession within which the first network-based document is provided to thecomputing system, or information associated with an item and included inthe first network-based document.
 9. The one or more computer-readablemedia of claim 5, wherein the identifier represents a link, wherein thelink is associated with at least one of a state or a style attribute,wherein the at least one of the state or the style attribute is based atleast in part on an access of the computing system to the secondnetwork-based document, and wherein the indication is determined basedat least in part on the at least one of the state or the styleattribute.
 10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9,wherein the code is configured to, upon execution at the computingsystem, access the at least one of the state or the style attribute froma history of a browser of the computing system.
 11. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the first network-baseddocument comprises a first web page associated with a service providerand describing an item, wherein the second network-based documentcomprises a second web page associated with a different service providerand describing the item, and wherein the instructions, when executedwith the one or more processors, further cause the system to at least:provide targeted content associated with the item based at least in parton the user being associated with the user characteristic.
 12. The oneor more computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the firstnetwork-based document and the second network-based document representweb pages of a web site of a service provider, and wherein theinstructions, when executed with the one or more processors, furthercause the system to at least: authenticate a user account or detect thatthe user account represents a web crawler based at least in part on theuser being associated with the user characteristic.
 13. A systemcomprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readablemedia comprising instructions that, when executed with the one or moreprocessors, cause the system to at least: add, to a first network-baseddocument, an identifier of a second network-based document and codebased at least in part on a request for the first network-baseddocument, the request received from a computing system of a user, thecode configured at least to, upon execution at the computing system,determine whether the second network-based document was accessed;provide the first network-based document to the computing system basedat least in part on the request; receive, from the computing system, anindication of whether the second network-based document was accessedprior to providing the first network-based document to the computingsystem, the indication received based at least in part on an executionof the code at the computing system; and associate the user with a usercharacteristic based at least in part on the indication.
 14. The systemof claim 13, wherein the first network-based document comprises a firstweb page of a web site of a first service provider, wherein the web siteoffers items, wherein the second network-based document comprises asecond web page of a second service provider, wherein the instructions,when executed with the one or more processors, further cause the systemto at least: maintain metadata associated with the second web page basedat least in part on historical data associated with access to the website.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the metadata describes a usercharacteristic based at least in part on the user characteristic beingobserved from the historical data at a frequency that exceeds athreshold.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein the first network-baseddocument provides information about an item available from a firstservice provider, wherein the identifier of the second network-baseddocument is added to the first network-based document based at least inpart on a selection of the second network-based document from aplurality of network-based documents, wherein the selection is based atleast in part on an association of the second network-based documentwith a second service provider.
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein thefirst network-based document describes an item, wherein the identifierof the second network-based document is added to the first network-baseddocument based at least in part on a selection of the secondnetwork-based document from a plurality of network-based documents,wherein the selection is based at least in part on the secondnetwork-based document describing the item.
 18. The system of claim 13,wherein the instructions, when executed with the one or more processors,further cause the system to at least: maintain metadata associated withthe second network-based document, wherein the metadata describes alikelihood of a user characteristic associated with a user access to thesecond network-based document.
 19. The system of claim 13, whereinassociating the user with the user characteristic comprises:associating, with the user characteristic, at least one of: anidentifier of the user or an identifier of a computing session betweenthe system and the computing system, and wherein the instructions, whenexecuted with the one or more processors, further cause the system to atleast: provide the computing system with access to information withinthe computing session based at least in part on the associating.
 20. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed with the oneor more processors, further cause the system to at least: authenticatethe user based at least in part on the user being associated with theuser characteristic; and add an identifier of the computing system ofthe user to a trusted list based at least in part on the user beingauthenticated, the trusted list indicating that the computing system isunassociated with a network-crawler.